Science VS Religion Flashcards
What are some differences between science and religion?
- Science = empirical evidence whereas religion = signs and wonders
- Science = tested hypothesis whereas religion = based on faith and sacred text
- Science = cummulative VS religion = fixed belief
What are some similarities between science and religion?
- Both attempt to answer ultimate questions e.g. how did life start, what happens after death
- Science and religion aren’t mutually exclusive
- Feminists: both look up to men as key figures
- Both are anthropocentric
What do sociologists say about the impact of science across time?
AO1/2
- Dixon: before enlightenment science and religion were seen as one e.g. Newton’s design argument - as every snowflake and finger print is different there must be a creator. Paley’s pocket watch design argument theory
- Weber: industrialisation -> enlightenment -> rational thinking -> disenchantment from belief in god, miracles, superstition, etc. E.g. medicine is used over blessings to treat illness
- Bruce: technological world view - if any event were to happen people would look to science to explain it e.g. when planes crash we use the black box to investigate rather than just assuming it was an act of god
- Beck: risk society - one on hand people have grown to distrust science as it creates more risks e.g. anti-vax movement, weapons of mass destruction. However science has also helped reduce risk e.g. can predict natural disasters, medical advancements reduce chance of death
How does Popper see science and religion as different?
AO1
Science = open belief system - open to rational scrutiny and criticism
Religion = closed belief system - knowledge is sacred, absolute, and unchanging
Key differences in these systems:
1. Absolute truth: you must believe in a fixed core belief to belong to a religion whereas science believes in cummulative truth
2. Metaphysical: religion focuses on aspects of the world you can’t see e.g. spiritual realm, heaven and hell, souls whereas science looks at world through empiricism
3. Falsification: science is falsifiable as the hypothesis falsification approach means conclusions can only remain a fact until they can be disproved. Religion is faith based and so not falsifiable
4. Objective facts: science is based on evidence whereas religion looks for evidence to verify belief. Religion = inductive approach whereas science = deductive
What is an example of Popper’s view?
AO2
When Galileo found that the earth was not the centre of the world the Catholic church forced him to retract his statement and had him put on house arrest for the rest of his life. This is because religion is a closed belief system so contesting it was forbidden.
What is Horton’s view?
AO1/2 or AO3 Supporting Popper
- Religion is a self reinforcing closed belief system.
- It can’t be overturned and knowledge is fixed
- It is based on an absolute, sacred text
e.g. in Kansas from 1999-2006 teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution was banned, in Alabama on textbooks covering the evolutionary theory there is a disclaimer saying this is just one potential theory others including creationism
What is a cross-cultural example of closed belief systems?
AO2/3
Pritchard: ethnographic study on the Azande tribe in Central Africa.
- Avid believers in witchcraft - nothing was by chance
- They had a ritual of going to an oracle who’d make benga - a ‘potion’ which was actually poison - and feed it to a chicken
- They asked the oracle a question, if the chicken died then the answer was yes but if the chicken survived it was no
- Regardless of what happened there was an answer related to witchcraft - when Pritchard tried to question their logic it was seen as offensive and blasphemous
What is Polanyi’s view of religion?
AO1/2/3
- Circularity: there is no way of actually disproving religion as arguments always come back to faith
- Subsidiary explanations: religion comes up with counter arguments when challenged e.g. God created the big bang
- Denial of legitimacy: religion denies the credibility of scientific arguments e.g. some Christians reject the theory of evolution
How does Merton see science and religion?
AO1/2
Science is more objective than religion so it has become more popular and supported by institutions. This is because science follows CUDOS Norms:
- Communism: scientific knowledge is shared e.g. vaccines
- Universalistic: other scientists are welcomed to test and contribute - science is judged universally to come up with objective truth
- Disinterestedness: scientific knowledge is pursued for the sake of truth and knowledge itself not popularity, status, power, money, etc
- Organised Skepticism: no scientific knowledge is sacred - criticism and questioning is welcomed
What is Kuhn’s view of science and religion?
AO1/3
Science and religion are similar
- Science works in certain frameworks - paradigms - which restrict scientific knowledge controlling what scientists can do and publish
- Scientists who don’t conform risk being boycotted or not getting published
- All scientists are socialised to accept these paradigms throughout their education
- Scientists ignore gaps in scientific knowledge until there’s too much evidence - then there is a paradigm shift
What sociologists/examples also support science and religion being similar?
AO3
SCIENCE IS ALSO A CLOSED BELIEF SYSTEM:
- Velikovsky: wrote a book debating the origins of the universe - ‘Worlds in Collision’. His theory was seen as so illogical that he was completely rejected by scientists and anyone who wanted to even test it often loss their jobs
- Knorr-Cetina: science is socially constructed - paradigms depend on CAGE factors e.g. Indian scientists often look to hindu teachings when coming up with theories
- Woolgar: in 1967 at Cambridge a group of students saw some pulsating neutrons and theorised that they were little green men (LGM) but abandoned the theory calling them pulsors instead as they knew LGM wouldn’t be accepted. To this day no one knows what the lights were as no one has been able to come up with an ‘acceptable’ theory
How do Postmodernists view science and religion?
AO3
- Lyotard: both are metanarratives that claim to possess the truth
- People are now disillusioned by both e.g. anti-vax movement during COVID and growing secularisation
- People now pick and mix aspects of belief system they follow e.g. may use western medicine prescribed by doctors as well as annointing oil
EVAL: Bruce - extent of pick and mixing is exaggerated - science is still seen as superior as it is tested against evidence
What is the marxist view of science?
AO3
Science is an ideological state apparatus:
- presents the assumption that science has brought positive movements but has actually brought greater exploitation to maximise the profits of the bourgeoisie
- e.g. TNCs exploit people in third world countries e.g. sweatshops in Bangladesh and mining for Apple in Congo
- science has led to the bourgeoisie being able to increase profit margins at the expense of workers e.g. self check out machines replacing cashiers
- science has created new opportunities for bourgeoisie business e.g. big pharma, Tesla
EVAL: Technology has helped Marxism spread
What is the feminist view of science?
AO3
- Marks: science claims to be gender neutral but in reality prejudice causes inequality in science employment. Female underrepresentation in science is justified by supposed sex differences in talent. e.g. Katherine Johnson - black female mathematician who contributed greatly to NASA but wasn’t recognised until recently due to misogynoir as depicted in the film Hidden Figures
- Crasmow: science has been used to claim women’s true vocation is to nurture and raise children due to biology. This has also created the idea that women in education would lead to puny unfeminine generations. This excludes women from science as they are forced into the home
